


Comfort in your care

by bloodandcream



Series: Ship all the Ships [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-15
Packaged: 2018-02-13 07:18:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2142030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodandcream/pseuds/bloodandcream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam feels betrayed by what Dean did to him and he doesn't have anyone to turn to because his brother is usually that person. After the hunt that saves Alex from becoming a vampire, he takes care of Jody and Jody takes care of him with an open offer to listen. They discover they can find comfort in each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort in your care

**Author's Note:**

  * For [omens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/omens/gifts).



> Prompts from omens : "Jody & Sam - love the age difference, love the weird mix of expert/protege-older/younger they have going on. How they both have their own skills and strengths. I love a casual, friendly relationship between these guys & I would not say no to mommy-issues or excess mothering, although it’s definitely not necessary since I love them both a lot with just their canon relationship. Kink is welcome here, though, is what I’m saying. But so are aimless dvd watching cuddle dates."
> 
> Also, this is canon divergent immediately following 9x19 (Alex Annie Alexis Ann)

-

Behind every hunter, there was a tragedy. It’s something you don’t ask about, but Sam was there for the horror that had turned her world upside down and turned her into a hunter. He was the one that pulled the trigger after all, and put a bullet through her son’s head.

Jody Mills seemed like the kind of woman who had always been tough, she was the sheriff after all, and great for a head shot. She lived through her son’s death once before he came back from the dead and pulled her husband down with him. Sometimes Sam wondered if it was better that he never had to remember the singular event that pushed his father into hunting, that shaped his childhood into what it was, that had him raised as a hunter. He’d seen plenty of tragedies since then, but it was what his life had always been. Someone like Jody, she’d had a nice life, a house and a husband and a respected job. She’d had no idea. Sometimes Sam thought that was worse, to actually have things to be taken away.

The tragedy didn’t break her, it tempered her and turned her into a hunter. She helped out on cases and alerted them to possible hunts. She’d fed them intel on the Leviathan and stabbed a Roman goddess in the back. The one thing Sam was glad for when it came to Jody wasn’t just that she survived and got stronger, that she could help out, it was that she still smiled when they saw her. She still had a kind of energy, a joy about being alive, that you didn’t see a lot in hunters. She wasn’t bitter, angry, vengeful; rather she had found new reasons to keep going.

Jody didn’t seem to be driven by reliving the past and getting revenge by proxy on any monsters she could, she was always looking forward and seeing the good in what she did, in helping prevent those sorts of things from happening to other families.

It was how they’d ended up saving Alex. Maybe Sam was getting a little too hard. He had been ready to put down the girl, ready to count it as a loss, to take her down in the cross fire if she got in the way. Jody didn’t give up, and she reminded Sam of the good he used to believe in. Of course after the monsters were dead, Jody said she didn’t need them to stay and help, when she and Alex were back at the cabin. Her knee was wrapped in a brace, and there was still a smile on her face for him and Dean, underneath the swelling and bruises.

Sam insisted he stay though, just to make sure the vamp cure worked out all right for Alex. It had worked for Dean, but you never knew, he didn’t want to potentially leave Jody vulnerable. Of course Dean decided that Sam had it covered and had taken of for some ‘important business’. Sam didn’t really know what his brother was getting up to these days, it couldn’t be any good but he didn’t have it in him to fight Dean on it.

They’d had a quiet dinner, Jody being cheerful and open and trying to engage Alex in conversation. The young girl was holding up well, managed to eat a little before going to bed early. Sam cleaned up in the kitchen with Jody. She pulled a bag of frozen peas out of the fridge before they headed to the living room together. Before he settled on the couch, Sam rummaged through his duffel that he’d brought in with him.

Jody was arranging her leg in front of her stiffly, looking tired but happy that things had turned out like they did, that Alex was sleeping in a nearby room. Sam sat down next to her, holding up the small tin jar he had.

“If your face is still sore, you should try some of this. It’s a home made salve, helps the swelling go down, the bruises too.”

Jody took the bag of peas off her face and looked at him with both eyes.

“That would be great, thanks. I’ve just got the basics for first aid in here. Figured as long as it was clean, it would be good enough.”

Opening up the tin, the pungent scent of herbs reminding him of numerous hunt wounds soothed with this stuff, Sam slid two fingers over the semi soft goop and lifted them to Jody’s face, swiping over a cut.

“I can take care of this in the bathroom.”

“You look beat, just let me.”

Gently soothing over swollen skin, Sam applied the tincture and wiped his fingers off on his jeans. Skin still red and raw glistened with the salve and Sam knew that would be a wicked purple bruise in the morning, but the stuff he put on would help it pass fast and would numb it a little at least. Winchester’s were damn good at killing things, but they also knew how to patch up the ones that survived.

“Thanks Sam.”

Jody still had a smile for him. Sam wanted to smile back and reassure her, but he was tired. Not just physically because he hadn’t been sleeping well, but the past few weeks were catching up on him fast and hard. What Dean had done to him, forced him into, he could almost accept that because it was just another hurt in a long line. But what Sam had done, or at least, what his body was used for… he couldn’t stop thinking about it and it was affecting his ability to function. He just wanted a quiet moment to think.

Jody blinked and frowned minutely as she looked at him, both of them not really wanting to break apart for bed but not really coming up with much conversation.

“So what’s been on your mind?”

It was an open ended question, spoken softly, and Sam could pass it off with a generic answer easily enough. But he didn’t want to. Jody was a good listener, she understood things in a different way than him, the way a woman does, the way a mother does.

Scrubbing a hand over his mouth Sam sighed and leaned back against the couch, looking away from her.

“Me and Dean haven’t been getting along too well lately.”

Jody scooted herself back, shuffling carefully with her leg in front of her. “Siblings fight. It happens. I’m guessing this isn’t over something like who took the last piece of pizza or used all the hot water?”

“No.” Sam shook his head, hair falling across his face.

The cabin was quiet, peaceful. He could hear animals outside, rustling through the forest, settling down for the night or waking up for it.

“Jody I …. a few months ago, I almost died, I should have. And Dean, he got the idea in his head that angels could help us. I don’t really know what happened, how they did it, cause angels need to consent to possess someone, but I guess the angel tricked both of us.”

Jody nodded down the couch from him, watching with genuine interest on her face, concerned with a slight pinch in her brow, waiting for him to say what he wanted.

“I guess the angel rode me for a while, you know, and I can’t even remember it but I know some of what I did, and my friend, our friend Kevin, I –“

Sam sat on the edge of the couch with his forearms resting against his thighs, hunched over his lap, hands dangling.

"I don’t even know what I’ve done. Sometimes hours, maybe days, passed, and I had no idea, it was like I was in a dream but there was someone else using my body and I don’t know what I’ve done."

A small hand reached over his lap to settle in one of his, curling over it and squeezing.

“Sam, that wasn’t you then. If you were being … possessed, by an angel, the guilt is on them, not you.”

"But it was my body, they couldn’t have done these things without me, I am guilty."

"You’ve done so much good. The world would be a worse place without you."

"I can’t just…. balance all the terrible things I’ve done with a few good things, it doesn’t work like that. I shouldn’t-", Sam started to choke on his words, emotions thick in his throat and he could feel tears in his eyes with the swell of memories and unresolved questions, "I shouldn’t even still be here. I was supposed to die. I was ready for it. I can remember talking to Death, and seeing my brother, and I just, I wanted to make it ok for Dean, he said it would be ok, and I trusted him but it wasn’t my brother, I guess. And now there are other people dead in my place and I shouldn’t be here."

A thigh pressed against his own, Sam kept his head down, hair falling over the side of his face and hiding him. Jody pressed against his side, an arm thrown across his back, she was a warm and solid presence.

"I don’t ever want you to think like that. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you Sam, you remember that. You do so much good and you don’t deserve to feel guilt for these things you can’t control."

A sob wracked through him, shoulders trembling, but he was trying so hard to keep it back. Jody started to rub circles against his back. Her voice was low, carrying sorrow and understanding.

“Let it out, it’s all right.”

Sam didn’t know why it was so easy to say these things to her, why he couldn’t seem to stop crying. Maybe it’s because there was just a softness to Jody. For so long the only person he’d really had to talk to about anything close to himself was Dean. His brother didn’t know how to deal with these sorts of things, didn’t like to. He used to be there when Sam needed, with a tight hug and usually a bottle of alcohol, but Sam knew Dean hated to see him cry. There was hardness in his brother, like every other hunter Sam had known, like the only people who really knew what kind of life he had.

He couldn’t even talk to Dean now, not about this, didn’t even have the sharp edges of his brother when it was his brother who was the problem. Sam felt like it was all breaking loose, not just his guilt about Kevin, about all the things he had done with that angel in him that he’d never know about, but all the guilt for all the evil things his body had been used for when he didn’t have control over it. He didn’t know why it was so easy to lay it all open in front of Jody, part of him feared she’d see what he really was and she’d pull back, part of him wanted her to see and to stay anyway.

She did stay, and gave him her softness and care. Sam didn’t know if being a hunter would harden her, but even now, her face bruised and cut from a brutal fight, there was gentleness to her. A small hand between his shoulder blades rubbed circles into his back, and eventually he gave up and turned to her, folding and curling his large body in to tuck against her chest while her arms wrapped around him and pulled him in tighter. She didn’t say anything, didn’t offer empty platitudes, just held on to him and soothed her hands up and down his back.

It felt like something broke open in him, easy and swift, Jody pulling him closer with small arms around his broad shoulders, when it wasn’t just his own harsh judgment and unanswered questions but someone else there with him, someone just letting him exist as he was, just accepting it all.

Sam couldn’t say when he ended up on his side curled tight on the small couch next to Jody but she continued running her hands down his back when he couldn’t really talk anymore and he was so glad for her to be there.

-

Sam woke with a crick in his neck from sleeping draped on a too small couch, covered in a quilt that wasn’t there when he had fallen asleep. He only let himself feel embarrassed for a minute about his conversation with Jody last night. It was still kind of hard wired in him that guys don’t talk about their feelings and cry like that, although he thought the sentiment was bullshit. But it’s hard to ignore the way you’re raised sometimes, and the prevalent societal norm at large as well. He only momentarily felt a spike of anxiety because it was Jody, because he didn’t really know her that well and Sam felt the private sort of things he’d divulged should be saved to people really close to you, people who you knew and knew how they’d react.

The only person Sam had left like that was Dean, and Dean was the problem. It was easy to talk to Jody. She might not have been in the hunter’s life for more than a handful of years, but she knew things. About him, and Dean, and just how deep the shadows reached. There was something to her that felt like understanding and acceptance, something warm and caring still. That made it easy to talk, and once Sam took a deep breath he realized that he felt a lot better for it.

Hearing a clatter from the small open kitchen behind the couch, Sam sat up and peered around to see Jody bending over awkwardly to pick up a pan, trying to work around the stiff brace that held her knee. She was the one beat up from the hunt yesterday and she was first awake and making breakfast. Sam felt kind of like an asshole for moping so much. Or maybe that was his brother’s voice in his head talking.

Getting up and stretching with an audible pop in his back, Sam smiled at Jody when she caught his eye. The bruise down half her face was still livid, but the salve he gave her last night seemed to already be working, most of the swelling had gone down at least.

"Good morning. I hope you managed to get some sleep on that tiny couch."

“Yeah, it’s fine, I’ve spent plenty of times sleeping in the Impala.”

“I don’t know how you fit in much of anything.”

Sam shrugged and made his way around Jody to get a cup from the cupboard, filling it with tap water. “Do you need help with breakfast? You probably shouldn’t be on that leg too much, I can take over.”

"Ah, my knee’s not too bad. Alex is in the shower, I told her I’d have some eggs for her when she came out. Do you like eggs?"

"Yeah, that’s good. You should let me help with something at least."

"Why don’t you get the dishes down and set the table."

"Sure. How’re you feeling?"

Sam bustled around Jody, trying to keep his body tucked in and small with the confined space. Setting the table and getting juice out of the fridge, Sam kept out of her way. Jody whisked eggs in a bowl before scrambling them in a skillet.

"Well, I’ve had better, and I’ve had worse. I think my knee will take a while, but my face feels a lot better already. Whatever you gave me is doing the trick."

“Good. I can leave some with you.”

“That’d be great, thanks.”

"It’s no problem."

Sam sat at the small table in the open space between the kitchen area and the living room. Jody had already set coffee on before he woke, the pot filling with a slow drip, and just the smell was enough to have Sam perking up.

"So, what do you think you’re going to do, with Alex?"

"I’m not really sure yet. That depends on what she wants. I figure I’ll take care of her for now, see if I can find her some help, search for her family."

"Yeah. It’s good she has you. I think she’ll be all right. I’m glad you didn’t let us… didn’t -"

“Sam. It’s fine. It worked out in the end.”

Jody stirred the eggs and fetched two mugs from the cupboard, filling them with coffee and passing one to Sam.

"Are you going to try and talk to your brother?"

Taking as big a sip of the scalding hot coffee as Sam could, he tried to stall that question with the distraction. Jody just waited patiently.

"I have tried talking to him. It doesn’t really get far, Dean’s not the talking type of person. I don’t think he actually gets why what he did was wrong, you know?"

Turning the stove off and setting the eggs aside, Jody leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee while they talked.

"Making decisions for your family, when they can’t make their own, it’s hard to know what’s right. I’m not saying that what he did was justified. But sometimes it’s hard to see where you’re supposed go when you’re in the middle of it. You need to not be so hard on yourself Sam, because what happened, that wasn’t your fault. But, maybe….."

Her words trailed off when the rumble of the Impala made its presence known outside. Sam sighed and stood from the table, getting another plate and glass down from the cupboard and setting it at the table. He took the hot pan of eggs from Jody, shooing her into a seat while he divvied up the food.

"Thanks Jody, for, listening, it really does mean a lot."

"Any time Sam, you know you can call me if you ever need to talk. I like talking with you."

Smiling and refilling both their cups, Dean was loudly making his entrance while Alex quietly made her way to sit at the table as well, hair wet and still looking ill from her recovery but better overall. Breakfast was a tense affair, Dean wary of Alex, Sam upset with Dean, Jody trying to engage everyone in more positive conversation. Sam helped clean up the dishes afterward, shooing Jody to the couch with an ice pack for her knee, but once everything was settled Dean was dragging him away and Sam went with him.

-

It wasn’t even a month later when Sam got a call from Jody about another hunt. It was a werewolf, and normally they would have both been confident she could handle it solo, but her knee was still in a brace and Sam was at a motel about an hour away from her location so he volunteered.

He was searching for Gadreel but that was largely a fruitless effort. He’d taken off on a lead that didn’t pan out, and initially Dean had gone with him. Right now, who knew where Dean was, presumably hunting Abaddon but Sam knew something was up with his brother for how secretive he’d been lately. It pissed him off, but he had wanted the distance, wanted a little breather. Well, now he had it.

And Cas, the angel was in the wind half the time. So Sam took off to help Jody, glad to be able to do something, help someone. By the time he’d gotten the call from her, she’d done most of the leg work to figure out what was going on, and they had a few locations to search for the monster. Good old classic hunt, Dean would have liked it.

Sam didn’t really want to think about his brother.

Jody looked a lot better from the last time he saw her. There was a small pink scar on one cheek where the skin split but all the bruising had faded. She’d lost the large leg brace that went from thigh to mid calf, wearing a smaller more compact one now. Sam wasn’t sure if she should go out on the hunt at all - he could take down a single werewolf on his own - but she insisted it’s always better to have backup and her knee was doing well enough for a little activity.

It’s all business from when he first arrived, minimal pleasantries exchanged between the intel, and within an hour of touching down they’re off. It was a surprisingly easy hunt, black and white like it hasn’t been for a while, a single werewolf ripping innocent people open and living out of the small woods on the fringes of the small town. They found it without much hassle, killed it with Sam getting only a few scratches, and burned the body. Jody watched his back, didn’t get involved, and walked out of the forest with him with no new injuries.

The small scratches Sam got on his arm didn’t even need stitches. Jody insisted they weren’t small, but no stitches equaled not a big deal. She dragged him back to the motel room she was staying at, the hunt being too far from her home base for convenience, and cleaned and wrapped up his arm anyway. Sam was ok with that, not like he’d gotten any messages on his phone from Dean or Cas. Jody offered him dinner for his trouble, and they opted to get pizza and beer and take an easy night.

When everything was tended and taken care of, they sat amicably at the motel table eating out of the pizza box and drinking cold beer.

"So, I found Alex’s parents. Her real parents, that she was kidnapped from."

"You found them?"

"Yep."

"Did she want to go back with them?"

"Not like there’s really much of a choice, but yeah, she was really nervous but I think she’ll be happy once she gets used to it."

"Good. Man, but what did you tell them, did you tell them about the vampires?"

"Nah, I’m not looking to get tossed in an institution. I talked to Alex about it first. She didn’t really want to tell her family about it, I can understand that. It’s not really good to hide that kind of stuff though, you know, and I offered to visit her regularly, so she’d have someone that knew about all of it still in her life. But, she can try to put it behind her, be a normal girl for once."

"That’s really good. Are you going to miss her?"

"I will. I do. But I get to see her every now and then. I’m going to aim for at least once a month. She’s a really good kid.

"She’s lucky to have you to look after her."

Jody smiled at that, looking down into her empty beer before reaching for another, sliding one across the table for Sam. It made him glad that there were people out there, hunters - and there had to be more than just Jody - who wanted to help with the wreckage that always followed when the supernatural popped up. He’d seen enough broken vessels, ripped open victims, families torn apart. He needed this, needed the good kind of stories, the ones that ended at least kind of well. Jody made that possible.

"How are things between you and Dean?"

Sam shook his head, taking a long pull on his drink, hunching just a little more in his seat.

"I’d rather not talk about that."

"Ok. I got a gallon of ice cream in the mini fridge that I snagged when I was on the beer run. You want to see if there’s any good movies on?"

"There’s never any good movies on the stations motels get. But what kind of ice cream you got?"

"Mint chocolate chip."

“Yeah that sounds good.”

"All right, go find a crappy movie then."

Sam folded the empty pizza box and shoved it in the small trash can, taking the remaining beers over to a bedside table and plopping down to flip on the tiny old tv, flicking through stations while Jody settled next to him with the ice cream and two spoons.

There weren’t really any new movies on, but he found Braveheart about halfway finished. Jody nodded approvingly next to him when he paused on the station. “Classic, I like it.”

"All right."

Sam kicked off his shoes and sat cross legged on top of the outrageously floral patterned comforter, taking a spoon from Jody and digging in to the tub of ice cream. Mint and beer went surprisingly well together.

By the time they reached the bottom of the ice cream, both of them were lounging back against the headboard, shoulder to shoulder, engrossed in the movie. It didn’t matter that Sam had seen it umpteenth times, it was a great classic. Jody seemed to agree. Setting the empty carton on the bedside table with the small collection of empty beer bottles, Sam just settled back next to Jody, sliding down a little further on the bed and stretching out. Jody was on the side of the bed towards the television, one arm folded behind her head, her leg still in it’s brace extended straight before her.

Sam wasn’t used to watching movies with another person on the bed with him. He wasn’t really much used to being in a bed with another person. It had been a long time since he had the kind of relationship with a person where that was normal, whether it was platonically or romantically. Jody kind of fell somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, or at least Sam wanted her to. 

Jody was warm and soft and made an excellent pillow, he decided. Pleasantly buzzed but not really drunk, neither of them decided it was odd for Sam to watch the movie with his head resting on Jody’s lap, watching over her.

By the time Braveheart was over, Sam’s arm was flung over Jody’s leg, and one of Jody’s hands was buried in his hair, petting through it with a light drag of her nails. It felt wonderful, something simple and easy as this human contact, so he didn’t really want to mention it. She seemed to be doing it absent mindedly, and as soon as the movie was over she looked down at him, while he looked up, and there was a question in her furrowed brow.

Sam pretended he knew what the question was and that it was about what to watch next.

"Let’s just see what comes on after this?"

Her face smoothed out, a small smile in the corner of her lips. “Okay.”

Rob Roy came on next after the commercials, must be some sort of themed night. Jody’s fingers sifted through his hair, curving over the shape of his skull, backs of her knuckles dragging lightly behind his ear. Sam wasn’t really paying attention to the movie any more.

There was a pleasant looseness to his muscles that he hadn’t felt for a while and Sam came to the realization that he was relaxed. Smooshing his cheek further against Jody’s thigh, he sagged into the bed and curled his arm over her lap up to her waist, as if he held on tight enough he could keep this. Fingers pushed through his hair, nails scratching at the back of his neck and behind his ear.

“It’s really not fair that you get such nice hair. Do you even use anything on it?”

Sam looked up blinking.

“Huh?”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“I like your hair.”

“Yeah?”

Jody patted at the short pixie cut that was just growing out to curl over the shell of her ears.

“Yeah.”

Sam felt the tips of his fingers against bare skin, pushing up under the hem of Jody’s soft cotton shirt. Lightly, tentatively he pushed the broad width of his palm up onto the curve of her side.

“Is this okay?”

“Sam…. aren’t I old enough to be your mother?”

“You’ve barely got fifteen years on me. And I don’t mind that.”

Tightening his grip around the soft give where her side dipped under the ribs before flaring to the hip, Sam pushed up on his elbow then up onto one hand leaning over her.

Jody pushed the hair out of his face, curling it over an ear, her small palm gun calloused on his cheek. Her lips parted, something unsaid hovering behind them, but she leaned forward instead so Sam pressed forward too and met her in the middle. Just a brush of lips barely there and they both still had their eyes open, watching for something.

Sam must have found what he wanted when she looked at him, straightening up further and straddling over one of her thighs to lean further into it, head canted and bodies touching, thigh to thigh, hands to hip, fingers in his hair.

The movie still played in the background, lilt of Scottish accents and lights changing hues on their skin. Sam unbuttoned her shirt one by one, hands pulling her up from where she reclined to push it over her shoulders and drag her undershirt up over her head. She pushed the hem of his tee up, but he towered above her on his knees so he pulled it above his head himself while slender fingers slipped around his ribs to the curve of his back and traced the line of his spine.

Sam unclasped the plain white bra she wore and laid her back down, brown eyes watching him fondly and a smile curving her lips until he bent to kiss them again, and again. Jody sighed contentedly into the contact and pushed her hips up to rub against him. Sam kissed along her jaw and the smooth length of her neck to the swell of her breasts, hands running along the curves of her body while she continued playing with his hair and holding it off his face.

He traced the raised pink skin above her right breast where she had been stabbed, fingers smoothing over the old wound and moving down to curve around a breast. There were stories on her body, things he knew and things he didn’t, a few faint scars, silver faded stretch marks along her stomach from pregnancy, and as he kissed down the soft skin and his fingers brushed the waist of her pants Sam remembered he needed to take the brace off her knee first.

Jody pushed herself up on an elbow, fingers curving around his jaw and neck, as he kneeled up she followed to unclasp her brace and push it down. Sitting in front of him, she was so much smaller, and it was only more apparent for how close they were. He felt he should be more used to it, but her presence always took up more space.

Deciding to locate the remote while she pushed his pants down his hips and wriggled out of her own, Sam finally turned the movie off, bending over the bed to set the remote on the bedside table, picking his pants up again to pull a condom out of his wallet. He always had at least one- habit - even though he didn’t use many these days.

Laying back down with her, settled between slim legs rubbing up his own, feet playing with the backs of his thighs, ankles crossed at the small of his back, Jody pulled him down to kiss more, deep and sweet the way she licked into his mouth, dragging fingernails along the backs of his shoulder blades where they moved under skin, his arms between their bodies rolling the condom on, hands slotting on her hips pulling her closer.

There was something almost difficult in the vulnerability of connecting like this with someone he knew, someone who knew him. For years even friendship seemed too short, and fragile, with anyone outside of Dean. Amelia was an escape, a desperate bid to bury his past. He’d seen too many come and go in the volatility of their lives that anything lasting, anything familiar, he was almost afraid of it.

Jody’s hands were steady and her eyes were soft, mouth open on little gasps where she rocked herself up to meet him and held on tight. Sam draped himself along her body, back curved up with the rhythm of his motions, resting on his forearms alongside her head and bumping nose to nose. Sliding her hands up and down his arms she pulled at him, craning up to kiss open mouthed and distracted, breathing into him and shuddering beneath him as she arched and wrapped herself around him, pulling him alongside her into the undertow. Body tensed before it rolled through him, Sam buried his face in her neck and held her close.

Sam rolled to the side, curled around her body stretched and laxed, both spent and panting softly, a stupid grin tugging on his lips as Jody twisted around to pull at least a corner of the blankets over both their waists. She nestled into the crook of his bent arm and rested across his chest. Her hand rubbed soothing circles over his skin and Sam felt his eyelids sinking, content, willfully banishing any thoughts of past mistakes and future responsibilities in favor of feeling Jody breathing next to him, warm in the circle of his arms.

-

Sam woke the next morning to a room only dimly lit with the sun partway up the horizon when his phone started ringing, and he was only dragged out of bed by the fact that it was Dean’s ringtone. Jody rubbed sleepily at her eyes and rolled over under the sheets, regarding him. When she heard Sam say Dean’s name, she was awake, sitting up, and they were both completely naked still. Sam may have blushed but Jody was unperturbed.

“I’d ask if it was anything good but it never is, is it?”

“No, I uh, I need to head out. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

Jody waved him over, pulling him by the wrist when he was in range, and pressed a kiss to his lips. Running a hand through his rumpled hair she smoothed it down and tucked it behind his ear.

“You say hi to Dean for me.”

“I will. And thanks for, everything.” Sam winced at himself. He was never good at this part.

“Oh I think I should be thanking you. I’ve had a long dry spell Sam.”

Jody’s laugh was too genuine and infectious not to share. Sam kissed her again on the forehead before gathering his clothes. “I’ll call you?”

“You’d better.”

**Author's Note:**

> One more note! Thanks to the lovely daydreamerdisease for beta'ing this for me, you rock!


End file.
